asackedIn the afternoon to deepest Brabant Wallon, to the birthday party of one of my God daughters. Each year at her party a minor miracle occurs. It doesn’t matter how lousy the weather might be earlier in the day; it is always sunny for her party. So it was this year: a glorious summer’s evening outside, on this, the summer solstice. But her older sister recounted fresh proof that the crisis is biting. A young teacher, trained up by her school, they preferred to let her go at the end of this academic year rather than offer her tenure, which would have brought her better terms but been more expenseive for the school. She’ll find a job elsewhere in all probability, but what has happened to her is counter-intuitive. She had been trained up precisely in order that she could then be offered tenure and become part of the school’s permanent staff and, since she was a gifted and much-appreciated teacher, the school had to let her go with a very heavy heart. Put another way; intellectual capital is being sacrificed for short-term savings and cuts in quality. It’s what we were discussing in Sofia, in fact.